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NISO recently announced the winter 2013 issue of Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) is available and its theme is the evolution of bibliographic data exchange. This issue is edited by OCLC’s Ted Fons and is freely available on the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) ISQ site.

The Metadata Discussion Group (MDG) tackled BIBFRAME in our October discussion and we agreed that we would like to see more concrete examples of BIBFRAME in action. Therefore, I was thrilled that Jackie Shieh wrote about George Washington University Libraries experience as an early experimenter in the BIBFRAME initiative. While is article focuses more on the administrative side, it is possible that we will start seeing the results of these early experimenters soon. Zepheira and LC’s 2014 plans for BIBFRAME focus on software development and demonstrations, as well as short-term analysis of lingering issues.

It is difficult for library staff to comprehend and anticipate how linked data will affect our workflow, the display of our bibliographic records, and user access/retrieval. I feel like BIBFRAME is a massive trust exercise and we cross our fingers that those who are building and tweaking the model are leading us in the right direction. But, we should try to read as much as possible on the subject since it impacts us greatly. NISO webinars and their publications have been good resources for us on best practices in the library community.

Last week NISO announced that their Spring/Summer issue of Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) is available online: www.niso.org/publications/isq

This issue focuses on linked data in the cultural sector, is guest edited by Corey Harper, and contains articles written by some Metadata Discussion Group Superstars.

Remember the MDG meeting from October, 2011? We discussed our impressions from Free Your Metadata, a video by Seth van Hooland, Max De Wilde, and Ruben Verborgh (and with very kicky music). The authors are included in this issue of ISQ where they discuss in greater detail how they used Google Refine to tidy up and reconcile data efficiently.

Jane Stevenson in Linking Lives describes the work to enable structured and linked data from the Archives Hub in the UK.

Ted Fons, Jeff Penka, and Richard Wallis discuss OCLC’s Linked Data Initiative and the use of Schema.org in WorldCat to make library data relevant on the web.

In Europeana: Moving to Linked Open Data , Antoine Isaac, Robina Clayphan, and Bernhard Haslhofer explain how the metadata for over 23 million objects are being converted to an RDF-based linked data model in the European Union’s flagship digital cultural heritage initiative.

Jon Voss provides a status on Linked Open Data for Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LODLAM) State of Affairs and the annual summit to advance this work.

Thomas Elliott, Sebastian Heath, John MuccigrossoReport on the Linked Ancient World Data Institute, a workshop to further the availability of linked open data to create reusable digital resources with the classical studies disciplines.

Kevin Ford wraps up the contributed articles with a standard spotlight article on LC’s Bibliographic Framework Initiative and the Attractiveness of Linked Data. This Library of Congress-led community effort aims to transition from MARC 21 to a linked data model.